Micron Technology announced Jan. 17 it has signed a letter of intent to acquire Powerchip Semiconductor Manufacturing Corp’s P5 fabrication site in Tongluo, Taiwan.
The $1.8 billion acquisition includes an existing 300mm fab clean room of 300,000 square feet that will help Micron to address growing global demand for memory solutions, the company said in a news release. The LOI also aims to establish a long-term relationship between Micron and PSMC for Micron’s post-wafer assembly processing, and to support PSMC in its legacy dynamic random access memory (DRAM) portfolio.
“This strategic acquisition of an existing clean room complements our current Taiwan operations and will enable Micron to increase production and better serve our customers in a market where demand continues to outpace supply,” said Manish Bhatia, executive vice president of global operations at Micron Technology. “The Tongluo fab’s close proximity to Micron’s Taichung site will enable synergies across our Taiwan operations.”
The transaction is expected to close by the second quarter of 2026, following the approval of deal agreements and the required regulatory approvals. Upon closing the transaction, Micron will assume ownership and control of the P5 site to equip and ramp up DRAM production in phases, with PSMC relocating its Tongluo operations over time. Micron expects this acquisition to contribute to meaningful DRAM wafer output beginning in the second half of 2027
In related news, Micron Jan. 16 broke ground on a $100 billion memory manufacturing complex in Onondaga County, New York. With up to four fabs, this will be the largest semiconductor facility in the U.S., generating 50,000 jobs in New York state, the company said in a news release.
As the largest private investment in state history, Micron’s Central New York project will be home to the “most advanced” memory manufacturing facility in the world and will help meet the growing demands of artificial intelligence systems and devices that are central to the modern economy, according to the company.
Through the $500 million community investment framework with Empire State Development, Micron said it plans to invest $250 million in workforce development, education and other community investments, including transportation and housing.
The New York project is a cornerstone of Micron’s approximately $200 billion broader U.S. expansion, which also includes two high-volume fabs in Idaho, the expansion and modernization of its existing manufacturing fab in Virginia, advanced high-bandwidth memory packaging capabilities, and an R&D center. These investments support the company’s goal of producing 40% of its DRAM in the U.S. and are expected to generate approximately 90,000 U.S. jobs,
Production is expected to begin in 2030, with the fabs ramping throughout the decade.
